Better Bridge in Barry County July 4 2013

Better Bridge in Barry County

By Gerald Stein

 

 

	North ♠  7 6 3  ♥  Q 6 4    ♦  A 6    ♣  10 8 6 5 3
West ♠  Q 4 ♥  10 9 5   ♦  K J 10 8 7   ♣  K Q 9		East ♠  10 9 8 ♥  7   ♦  Q 9 5 3 2   ♣  A J 7 2
	South ♠  A K J 5 2 ♥  A K J 8 3 2 ♦  4 ♣  4

 

 

Dealer: Vulnerable: Lead:

South Both 10♥

 

North   1NT 3♥	East   Pass Pass	South 1♥ 2♠ 4♥	West Pass Pass

In another recent online duplicate bridge tournament, today’s hand showed up. While getting to four hearts seemed rather routine, in competitive games, it is not enough to make the bid. The key to winning the top place in these tournaments is to reach for and obtain the overtricks. That is what happened in today’s hand. Let’s take a look.

South was the dealer and opened with 1♥, choosing the longer six-card heart suit over the five-card spade suit. Both suits were strong suits, and South had a ready bid for his partner North with the second strong suit. North and South played a 1NT response as a forcing bid, showing between 6 and 12 high-card points in the North hand. As it turned out, six high-card points were about all there was in the North hand.

South had planned to bid the spades anyhow, but now the bid of 2♠ was also a forcing bid. This bid is called a Reverse, bidding one suit higher than the first suit so that Responder is forced to bid again. To use a Reverse, opener must have a strong hand with the high-card points and length in the 17-19 point range. South’s hand certainly qualified for a reverse bid.

North went back to South’s original bid of hearts and bid 3♥. North pushed to game and the contract was set at 4♥. The 10♥ was the lead from West, and South surveyed the dummy and his own hand. There appeared to be no losers in the heart suit, a good chance of promoting the spade suit, no diamond loser with the A♦ sitting prettily in the dummy hand, and one club loser. All in all, South was pleased with the bidding and the contract. The play of the hand would determine how many tricks South could win. Mindful of the competitive nature of the tournament, South knew that overtricks would be most valuable to winning this hand.

With the lead of a trump card, South was assured of winning and drawing all of the trumps easily. Instead, South won the first trick with the A♥, and he led a small heart to the Q♥ on the board. Here South stopped to think about needing a trump to take care of a losing spade trick. Knowing that the spades would typically split 3-2, when there are five out against you, the question for South was this: “Do I follow the old bridge adage of “Eight ever, Nine never” when missing the Q♠ and finesse for it? Or do I play the A♠, the K♠ and see what happens?” Most bridge players would follow the tried-and-true method, finesse for the Q♠ and lose it to West.

Not South. This time South on the third trick, knowing that there was still one trump out, but still having one trump on the board, led a small spade from the board and played the A♠ and then immediately after that played the K♠. When South saw the Q♠ fall and East follow with a spade, there was an inner smile floating around in South’s mind. South took the J♥ next, pulling the last trump, and proceeded to play the J♠, capturing the last spade of East. The 5♠ and the 2♠ had been promoted to discard the sad-looking clubs, and South then played all of the hearts as well. The A♦ was the 12^th trick for South, and as he saw at the first trick, the only losing trick was the final club trick losing to the A♣ saved by East.

A number of things happened on this hand. First, even though North/South did not have the requisite number of points for a game in the major, where typically 25-26 points will bring home a game, yet South had two very strong suits that became the method to secure two overtricks on this hand. Second, the proper use of the reverse bid kept the bidding alive, and North was forced to bid a second time choosing his better suit. Third, South chose to ignore a long-established bridge axiom to take the finesse missing the Queen in a suit. Taking the Ace and then the King and hoping for the drop worked this time for South. Was South lucky? Perhaps. But when it all came down to the final analysis, here were the final standings: of the 34 times this hand was played in the duplicate bridge tournament, only one South managed to take twelve out of the 13 tricks for a score of 680. Earning a 100% on one hand is always a high-water mark for a bridge player. South earned that high distinction on today’s hand. Well-done, South.

 

Gerald Stein

June 25, 2013

Number of words: 889